Jennifer Holliday abandons Trump inauguration performance out of loyalty to LGBT fans

Holliday originally justified her acceptance of Trump’s invitation as part of a career-long non-partisan stance: She performed for Ronald Reagan, George H.W. and George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton. As she told the New York Times, “I’m singing on the mall for the people. I don’t have a dog in this fight — I’m just a singer, and it’s a welcome concert for the people on the mall.” She said that she voted for Hillary Clinton, and that Trump’s staff was aware of that. “If someone wants me to sing a national anthem or something, we think about America, and we go.”

That was Friday. On Saturday, Holliday announced her reversal in a letter published by The Wrap. She was swayed by an op-ed in The Daily Beast, which called her decision to perform for Trump’s inauguration “heartbreaking to gay fans.” She addressed her letter to “my beloved LGBT community.”

She wrote, in part:

I was asked to sing a song for what was presented to me as the “Welcome Concert For The People”– in my mind I was reflecting on the past times of being asked to sing for presidents and I only focused on the phrase “For The People”… I thought, For America!

I was honestly just thinking that I wanted my voice to be a healing and unifying force for hope through music to help our deeply polarized country… Regretfully, I did not take into consideration that my performing for the concert would actually instead be taken as a political act against my own personal beliefs and be mistaken for support of Donald Trump and Mike Pence.

She cited the Daily Beast article, filled with information about Trump and Pence’s history of and plans for anti-LGBT legislation, as crucial to her decision-making process. Upon reading it, she wrote, “My only choice must now be to stand with the LGBT Community and to state unequivocally that I WILL NOT PERFORM FOR THE WELCOME CONCERT OR FOR ANY OF THE INAUGURATION FESTIVITIES!” She also expressed gratitude for the continued passion and support she receives from her LGBT fans: “I had no idea that I still meant so much to all of you.”

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